A 'framework agreement' as a precursor to a free trade arrangement will be signed when the prime minister is in Indonesia next week.
India and China on Wednesday held 'constructive' and 'forward-looking' diplomatic talks to resolve the over four-year border standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh but there was clear no indication of any breakthrough.
After operationalising FTA in goods last year, both the sides were engaged in widening the base of the pact by including services and investments.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday left for Cambodia to attend the ASEAN and East Asia Summits which will provide an opportunity for India to enhance its economic cooperation against the backdrop of crisis in the western world.
Striker Mike Okoro, Baichung Bhutia and Alvito D'Cunha scored goals.\n\n\n\n
India and ASEAN are working on a list of items on which the two sides will bring down tariffs faster and implement it by January next year.
After six years of painstaking talks, the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement will be signed which will eliminate duties on 80 per cent of goods traded between the two over the next eight years. Commerce minister Anand Sharma, who is in Bangkok to sign the pact, said the agreement is well balanced and is in harmony with the India's Look East Policy.
Substitute Bijen Singh's goal gave the Indian champions a 2-1 victory over Indonesia's Persita Tangerang \n\nin the quarter-finals.
India will not be signing the ambitious Free Trade Agreement with the 10-nation economic bloc, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, at the 4th East Asia summit to be held in Thailand on April 11 and 12. Commerce Minister Kamal Nath will be attending the summit, where the seventh India-Asean meeting is also scheduled at the same venue.
India's leading steel companies hope the Modi 3.0 Budget will continue the massive capital expenditure currently underway, focusing on infrastructure development, manufacturing, and fair trade. The infrastructure segment is the largest steel user, and the government's focus has fuelled steel consumption even as international markets have underperformed. According to provisional statistics, steel consumption grew 13.6 per cent in FY24, reaching 136 million tonnes (mt), according to a CRISIL report.
Saturday's Quad meeting in Delaware is taking place against the backdrop of China's assertive behaviour in the South China Sea, its sabre-rattling in the Taiwan Strait and increasing footprints in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, asserts Rup Narayan Das.
ASEAN's dialogue partners are -- Australia, China, the EU, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the US.
The SAARC nations have been more pragmatic than their peers in the ASEAN and EU, indicated an official source on the eve of the 17th SAARC Summit to be held in Male on November 10-11, even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left for Maldives for the SAARC Summit on Wednesday.
Countries that raised concerns about the quality of Indian spices have called for urgent attention and action, Delhi-based think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said on Wednesday. The stakes are high since India exported spices worth about $692.5 million to the United States (US), Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and Maldives in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), it said. During FY24, India's spice exports were worth $4.25 billion, accounting for a 12 per cent share of the global spice exports.
World Bank said on Thursday that the Indo-Asean free trade agreement would turn out to be a futile exercise unless India makes conscious efforts to lower tariffs and remove non-tariff barriers further.
Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma met his counterparts from the ten Asean-member nations to review the progress of negotiations at Da Nang.
The government on Monday said that two-way trade between India and Association of South East Asian Nations had the potential to more than double to $30 billion in next three years but it was necessary to put in place a low tariff regime.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during his visit to the 13th Asean summit held at Singapore in November 2007, had indicated that India would take a flexible stand in the FTA talks.
These ambitious projects are littered with every possible acronyms and include proposed road links, air connectivity plans, electricity grids and special economic zones on coasts, says Subhomoy Bhattacharjee.
The Indian economy may match the economies of the Association of South East Asian Nations in size by 2015, but in terms of labour productivity it will trail this grouping of 10 nations by a little under 20 per cent
Officials from India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations would resume their talks to widen of the scope of a Free Trade Agreement with the 10-nation trading bloc to cover services and investment.
The proposed Foreign Trade Agreement between India and Asean got a boost today as trade ministers of Asean countries agreed to India's proposal for reducing the negative list to 490 items
While addressing the 14th ASEAN-India summit, the PM noted that growing radicalism and spread of extreme violence are the other security threats.
The pact on trade in goods under the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement was signed by Indian commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma and ASEAN economic ministers after more than six years of intense negotiations.
India made it clear on Thursday that it will insist on a sizeable negative list of items in the Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN and there will be no compromise on the number of agricultural and textile items in which duty free imports will be banned.
The Indian champions beat Indonesia's Petrokimia Putra after a sudden-death penalty shoot-out.
Manmohan Singh faced stiff competition in Singapore. No, not at the East Asia Summit or in meetings with the Asean. But the rival attractions of two imaginative exhibitions on India's past and an exhaustive three-day conference titled "Early Indian Influences in Southeast Asia" eclipsed his presence while China's Wen Jiabao basked in media glory that reflected the reality of economic and military power.
In the ASEAN tournament, twelve teams from South and East Asia are pooled in four groups.
Pakistan and Association of Southeast Asian Nations have agreed to begin talks for a Free Trade Agreement to boost Islamabad's efforts towards achieving full dialogue partner status with the ten-member regional economic grouping.
India on Saturday offered to help south-east Asian nations in the management of natural disasters by sharing satellite data for the region and launching small satellites built by them. "We would be ready to share satellite data for management of natural disasters, launch small satellites and scientific instruments and payloads for experiments in remote sensing and communication for space agencies and academic institutions in ASEAN countries," PM Manmohan Singh said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left Phnom Penh for home on Tuesday after attending the ASEAN and East Asia Summits besides holding talks with his Japanese and Chinese counterparts and interacting with United States President Barack Obama.
The All India Kisan Sabha has expressed its displeasure on the signing of a Free Trade Agreement with the ASEAN nations. In a statement issued by the farmer's body they have criticised the centre for signing the FTA despite serious misgivings of state governments, peasant organisations and experts.Sectors like plantations, fisheries, textiles and light manufacturing goods will be seriously affected by this deal.
'With continued focus on votes, upcoming by-polls and purchasing politicians, the political hierarchy has little time for national defence.' 'They would do well to heed a veteran scholar, who says, "There will be war with China in the next few years. The next full scale war will have the involvement of Pakistan and terror elements, insurgents and intelligence assets operating inside India",' warns Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
'Many countries believe that if they join BRICS, they will be seen as emerging countries and their stature will be enhanced.' 'G-20 still has common action plans while BRICS does not do that much.'
Addressing a party rally at Irutty near Kannur, Karat said a convention of the Left parties and their farm outfits would be held in New Delhi on August 26 to discuss the implications of the agreement and would work out the course of campaign. Karat said the government was now finding it convenient to go full steam ahead with its 'liberal' agenda which it could not do while it survived on the outside support of the Left.
India and the 10-country trading bloc poised to ratify pact on trade in services soon
While Narendra Modi spent fewer days abroad than his predecessor -- 275 days versus Dr Singh's 306 - he has travelled more widely than any other Indian PM.
